And what if I am right, that the GOP is fine with people losing ACA, losing SNAP, losing Medicaid, because they figure that the lack of assistance will force them to "get a job", or "work more hours", so they can make ends meet? And they have maneuvered the Dems into taking the heat for it.
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They might indeed feel that way, but then they will say that it's not them who insisted on the shutdown.

And your tribes can go back and forth.

Lot of good that's done you people.

Longer term, yes, there is some logic and reason to believe what you say. The GOP (sadly) has always hated ACA and had no equal proposal. Well, they sort of did. ACA was *theirs* via Heritage Foundation and Mitt Romney :) Until Obama adopted some of it.....

On the hours and 'get a job' - yes, the GOP - - thinks that. And - - partially - they are right on. BUT they've not caught up to the fact that America is a poor country thanks to bad culture. 53% of kids on SNAP are in single parent households and the GOP doesn't realize that it's tough to get public transit, child care, and then "work" just to break-even in some cases. But then if one also wants to be fair minded and watch the outrage videos from some SNAP folks - one wonders how much the tattoo and smartphone costed.

Long term i'm not sure how it shakes out but i do feel there will be less jobs - thanks to "automation" and "progress". Hence i'm glad there will be less people coming in but Steve, I think the GOP is partially right about "get a job, work more hours", and partially wrong about it in some cases.

Where I think the whole country missed it: Nope, not a few bucks in hourly wage. Not this program or that tax cut.

Culture.

Socioeconomic trends.

The country never has a dialogue on *why* 40,000,000 of our people need such help in the first place. The country never talks about why - jobs that used to be entry level, or summer work (fast food, etc) is now a career for life (well, it was. But seems that AI and Kiosks won't shout" 15 an hour!"


The country never has a dialogue - why in 'racist unfair america' do certain groups of america, non-white, in the first generation in america start at hte bottom, and end up in the wealthiest zip codes.

Hence, here you people are.

"Victory" constitutes "woo hoo, we got 40,000,000 their food assistance" - - great, some victory be proud.

Right now, there's someone having a baby out of wedlock and wondering why it's so hard to make ends meet and even move up the ladder. There's somebody reading their King James Bible about the rapture, and then having a baby out of wedlock and wondering the same thing. BUt also....there's many....working entry level jobs. Thankful they came to America. Raising nuclear families. Pooling living expenses with others. Their haircuts are cheaper than what you see on actual fast food workers. They won't have tattoo parlor and puppy expenses. They won't have rims on the car. But their kids will be at Kumon learning math. And they'll be kicking our asses even more than they do now----culture.

Again, I'm all for the assistance. Tax me for it. A poor country with bad culture ad no plan needs such. But i regret the root causes are not, were not, and will enger be discussed and i regreat that literally, huge swaths of people will be in the Hunger Games one day - sooner than we think.

And yes, I hope thee mayhem visits the enclaves of affluent white liberals one day. I still am not brave enough to start arranging it myself, but i will be pilot testing on one's and two's when the moment is right and if it works, maybe there's others who will do it. Chickenhawkery suits me well :)